After Santu and others returned to the city, they reported what they saw to the government, but they did not wait until Erhei and the Si brothers came back.
In the morning of the next day, three cannon shots were fired at the west gate. The houses in the city were shaken and the windows were shaking.
Everyone in the city is talking about whether something big has happened.
Martial law has been imposed on these two cities, and they are not even allowed to go out to collect firewood. It is said that the Mongols have arrived. From now on, it is strictly forbidden to go out.
Everyone could feel that the atmosphere was becoming increasingly tense. Parents were cleaning their swords, guns and armor. Even the children were handed six-foot-long red-tasseled guns.
After a while, a large group of cavalry began to enter the city. In addition to the cavalry, there were also a large number of prisoners tied with ropes. These prisoners numbered sixty or seventy thousand. Most of them were old and young, women and children, and only a few thousand were young and strong.
People. A dark place.
Erhei and the Si brothers were also riding on horses and were led by cavalry into the city. Riding on tall horses, the three of them were extremely excited.
It was their first time riding a horse, and they were all held in front by the cavalry to prevent them from falling. They even carried their precious backpacks and picked mountain products.
Wang Hao explained that these three boys have merit, and the specific rewards have not yet been announced. They have to wait for the leader An to make a decision and send them home properly first.
Santu and others crowded into the crowd watching the fun and found Erhei. They were very excited and ran after him, calling Erhei's name at the same time.
Erhei's face flushed with excitement, and he suddenly had the idea of becoming a cavalryman when he grew up. This feeling of having everyone cheering for a victorious army was really good.
Behind the prisoners were many carts carrying yurts and various items. The cavalry behind them drove large numbers of cattle, sheep and livestock into the city.
It was clear that the army was returning from a victorious battle. The people watching were jubilant.
The Mongols on the grasslands put too much pressure on the Han people on the border. In local words, the Ming Dynasty's army was like a prairie dog giving birth to a chipmunk, and each generation was worse than the last.
Now that An Sanxi has captured so many people and returned, many people are extremely excited. Many old men and women are cheering and crying at the same time.
Normally in the border army, as long as you cut off the head of a real Tatar, you can choose whether to get a reward of fifty taels of silver or to be promoted to one level. However, it is not easy to cut off the heads of Mongolians, and the risk is extremely high. Usually you can have
Dozens of heads are considered a great military achievement.
In other words, if a soldier cuts off one head, he can be promoted to corps leader, and if he cuts off another head, he can be promoted to gang leader. If he cuts three heads, he will be promoted to a small flag, if he cuts four heads, he will be promoted to a general flag, and if he cuts five heads, he will be promoted to the rank of leader.
For a hundred households.
Although only more than 3,000 prisoners were young and strong, and the remaining more than 60,000 were women, children, old and weak, this was still a great victory. The Ming Dynasty had not fought such a victory for almost two hundred years.
In this battle, An Sanxi beheaded 12,000 people and captured 68,000 people, 300,000 cattle, 2 million sheep, and 100,000 horses. It was a great victory.
This was also the first real battle for the dragoons equipped with a large number of flintlocks and grenades, and they achieved very good results. Just as Yang Fan expected, the cavalry with cold weapons could not defeat the new cavalry equipped with matchlock guns.
.
Otherwise, why would Siberia be occupied by Maozi?
The reason why the entire tribe was captured was because in this era, the wars waged by the Mongols were fought by the entire tribe as nomads.
They did not dare to abandon the tribe and only sent cavalry to expedition.
Otherwise, by the time they win or come back from defeat, the tribe, cattle and sheep may have been annexed by other tribes.
That's why An Sanxi made such a big seizure.
With the entry of these prisoners into the city, the population of Duolun doubled. It exceeded 100,000 and reached 120,000.
With this population, in this era, even in the mainland, this is a large county.
Fortunately, there was a bumper harvest this year, otherwise Ansanxi would not be able to feed so many people.
The news that the Duoyan tribe was defeated by Nairen Bater's night attack spread in all directions with the wind on the grassland. Almost all the Taijis were shocked.
They didn't know if Nairen Bat'er was crazy. With soldiers pressing down on the territory and being surrounded from all sides, he actually dared to take a break from his busy schedule and take the initiative to attack. First, he annihilated a portion of the Duoyan tribe that had become isolated due to their temerity.
Stimulated by this battle, the Mongols accelerated their advance.
They decided that they would never give that bad guy another chance. In their minds, this farewell was more hateful than Sinister Khan.
Early the next morning, the Mongols who were surrounded from all sides appeared outside the four walls of Duolun City. As the Mongols set up camp, Duolun City was besieged.
An Sanxi and Wang Hao patrolled along the city wall.
I saw densely packed felt bags on all sides, and Mongolian cavalry were roaming everywhere. Now it is estimated that even a bird flying out will be shot down by the Mongolian sharpshooters.
The initiator of the siege of Duolun City, the leader of this alliance, and the nominal leader of Karaqin, Khan Ahai, led hundreds of Taijis, and Nayan observed the repairs on the hastily built wooden watchtower.
A city less than half a year old.
Due to the scarcity of wood on the grassland, it was difficult to get enough wood to build this high platform.
"Everyone, look at what these annoying Ming people have done to our grassland. This was originally the most fertile grassland of the Silver Tribe. They have actually opened up wasteland for farming. If they gain a foothold on the grassland,
If we keep encroaching on it, we still have pastures to graze cattle and sheep, and this will cut off our roots."
Everyone nodded in agreement. It was indeed true. The grassland was used for grazing, and the utilization rate was very low. One square kilometer might not be enough to support a family of herdsmen. However, there were a full 1,500 acres of cultivated land. It could support hundreds of Ming farmers.
family.
In the past, it was the Mongols who went south to rob Ming farmers, but now it is the other way around. Ming farmers went to the grasslands to cultivate and rob their pastures.
It was really unbearable. It made them feel very angry.
Chubuqingtabunang, the left side of his face was severely burned and there was some oozing of fluid, which looked extremely scary.
After he fell into the tent, another Molotov cocktail was thrown at him.
Fortunately, he was clever and put out the fire by rolling in the sand. However, there was still a little grease on his face, and he was completely disfigured by the burn.
More than a thousand of his fifteen hundred cavalry were killed, and only about four hundred who followed him took advantage of the chaos to escape across the river. The tribe he brought was also finished, and they were all captured by the devil. Now he had no choice but to
Go to Khan Ahai and find a way to settle down first.
"If you fight them, we will never let them take root on the grassland." Chubuqingtabu Nang immediately shouted.
Following his lead, the surrounding princes began to shout and curse.
Khan Ahai nodded approvingly to Chu Buqing and was very satisfied with his wink. He enjoyed this feeling of being able to respond to everything at once.
But after everyone finished shouting, looking at Duolun City in the distance, everyone felt like they had nowhere to go. Because the city was built in a very tricky location.
This is the upper reaches of the Luan River, where several of the largest tributaries converge.
The water in the moat is running water and is very difficult to landfill.
Moreover, the west of the river here is the city of Duolun, and the east of the river is a replica of the hideous Bastille Castle, with a pier sandwiched in the middle. There are walls on both ends of the pier, and the towers are closed.
The pier cannot be attacked from the outside, and there are iron chains blocking the river on the upper and lower ends of the river, between the two opposite towers.
If you don't use a winch and loosen the iron chain and sink it to the bottom of the river, as long as you tighten the iron chain, the iron chain will cross the river and ships will not be able to sail in at all.
Because it is upstream, the river is less than thirty meters wide and the water depth is less than two meters. It can be blocked easily.
The canoes used here are wide flat-bottomed boats with a draft of half a meter to one meter. Boats with a draft that is too deep cannot go here at all.
A group of people stood on a high platform and looked at the densely packed houses and yurts in the city. They couldn't help but be surprised. These Ming people are really good at work.
In less than a year, such a large city was built.
Whether it's the Duolun City with its huge rammed earth walls in the west of the river, or the gloomy castle built with stones in the east of the river, neither one is easy to fight.
For a moment, I felt a little timid.
The Mongols are not good at siege warfare. They can rarely lay down strong fortresses and cities. Most of the time they rush into the Great Wall to plunder scattered rural areas.
They usually go around a fortified city when they see it.
While the Mongols were studying how to attack this thorn in their flesh on the grassland, Yang Fan had already received the latest battle report from Duolun City.
"Haha, An Sanxi really didn't disappoint me this time. He took some time off from his busy schedule to strike first and raided an isolated area where the Duoyan people invaded. They beheaded 12,000 people and captured more than 60,000 people, as well as more than a million cattle, sheep, and horses.
It's really a great achievement." Yang Fan said happily.
"Promote him to the rank of major general. The three cavalry regiments on the grassland will be formed into a cavalry division, and let him be the division commander." Yang Fan said to Tu Shanyue.
The current director of the Secretariat is Tu Shanyue. Orders for promotion of generals were drafted by Tu Shanyue, approved by Yang Fan, and issued in the name of the Secretariat.
Tu Shanyue saw that Yang Fan was in high spirits and said, "Master, there is another good thing. There is news from Chen Xi that the cylinder has been made according to the drawings you provided, using craftsmen and a simple boring machine.
.I would like to invite you to the Power Research Institute this afternoon to watch the first one-horsepower steam engine they built."
Yang Fan was a little surprised. It had only been so long before he had built a prototype of an experimental product. But it didn't matter when he thought about it. All the information was given, and there were also early drawings. The material was copper, because copper is soft and easy to process.
Various parts can be knocked out by hand, and large parts such as crankshafts can be cast from steel.
The most difficult part is the cylinder, because human hands cannot knock out a perfectly round cylinder. This is almost impossible, and it will get stuck. But with the boring machine, this is not a problem.
Another problem is the sealing problem of the cylinder. The cylinder cannot run out of air, otherwise the power of the machine will not increase. When it comes to sealing, after all, this needs a rubber ring to solve. At this time, rubber is still in America.
But this is not a problem. Among the scraps collected by the fool, there are a lot of waste rubber. If it is not possible, hemp rope soaked in oil can be used, but it is not durable. But haven't the British been using it for half a century?
"Okay, let's go and see how the steam engine our little talented girl makes this afternoon looks like,"